


A Change of Heart

by mitsukai613



Category: The Dresden Files - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-17
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-09 00:13:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1139149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitsukai613/pseuds/mitsukai613
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Morgan are sent on a mission together and find themselves unexpectedly agreeing, but, as should be expected, they agree about something that gets them in rather a lot of trouble. They flee from Summer and attempt to reach Lea for protection, and on the way they find themselves mending their troubled past and forming a relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this is a change of pace for me, but honestly I've always found this pairing pretty cute as well, so I wanted to try it. Oh, there might be pretty slow posting on this. I'll try to get a chapter up every week, but I won't be making any promises. 
> 
> P.S. Yes, I realize that summary (and the title, and possibly this entire fic) are super cheesy, but, well, I like the classics and cheese is delicious. Anyway, I hope you guys like this fic!

                Someone was knocking at my door. Loudly and angrily. I groaned, and ended up with a mouthful of thick fur. Apparently I’d decided that Mouse made a really awesome pillow at some point during the night. I felt Mister paw at my face, thankfully with his claws sheathed, from his perch on my side, although how he was managing that when he’s a lot wider than me, I don’t know. That’s the thing about cats, though; they can do what even magic can’t: thumb their collective nose at the laws of physics. I groaned again, and received another mouthful of fur for my effort. Mister nosed my cheek, and Mouse chuffed out a breath, both of them obviously telling me that whoever was out there could damn well wait. I sighed, and gently pushed Mister off of me. He gave me that one particular look he got sometimes, the one that said I was worse than the scum on his paws, and that I would have long been killed by His Regal Glory were I not the one who supplied the kibble and the Coke. I grinned, and stumbled to my feet. The knock managed to get even louder and angrier.

                “Sorry, furfaces. I don’t think whoever’s out there is going to leave. Besides, if it’s Murphy she’ll beat me up.” If they were human I’m pretty sure I would’ve gotten crossed arms and raised eyebrows for that.  I stepped out of my shabby little bedroom and into kitchen/dining room/living area that constituted most of the rest of my apartment and answered the door. Morgan stood on the other side, tall and broad and completely filling my doorway. His face was stern as always, set in a deep, thin frown. His sword hung, daunting as ever, on his hip over the deep gray robe that served as the uniform of Wardens. At least he’s predictable, I’ll give him that much. I yawned in his face, likely looking every bit the jobless vagabond as I leaned against the door, my hair mussed and my only clothing a pair of warm gray sweats that hung a few sizes too big on my hips. I scratched my jaw and felt the growth of morning stubble.

                “Warden Dresden,” he said, obviously unwilling to use the title on me. I nodded in response.

                “Yeah? What’s up, Morgan?” He sneered at me, and brushed his long, iron streaked black hair, for once not bound up into a ponytail, behind his ears. In the time I’d known him, I’d come to identify it as a sort of nervous twitch, although it didn’t occur often, even when his hair was down. Usually it only happened when I caught him tired or injured. I didn’t see any blood on him, so I figured it was the former, this time.

                “Mission in the Nevernever for the two of us. Captain Luccio assigned it herself. The two of us are, apparently, the best equipped for it.” Goddamn it, Luccio. The woman knows I just got back from some mission, and it had resulted in me getting shot three times. I mean, yeah, I was fine, because of my duster, but still. It’s the principle of it. And my chest was bruised up, because of that. I sighed and scratched said bruised chest as Mouse came trotting out of my bedroom, mouth open in his signature doggy grin. He wandered over to Morgan and held his paw out for the man to shake. He’d always been fond of Morgan, I never really figured out why. Mister didn’t like him too much, though. Mister is a smart cat. Of course, Mouse is also a very smart dog, so I don’t really know whose opinion I should trust.

                “Hell’s Bells, I just got home late last night. What could’ve possibly happened in that amount of time?” He shifted a shoulder in what might have been a shrug in some countries.

                “Details are limited, and discussing them through your door is dangerous.” I nodded, and stepped back so he could come in.

                “You want something to drink or eat?” I asked, shoving the door closed harshly, the Hospitality Laws I’d had drilled into me from my youth coming up to bite me again. He took a seat on my couch, but his spine stayed straight and stiff. I had to applaud him for that. My couch is stupidly comfortable, if old. No one besides Morgan has ever been able to resist its cozy might.

                “A glass of water would serve.” I nodded, and grabbed a collector’s edition Bugs Bunny cup from my cabinet, and filled it with frigid water from my sink. Honestly, getting a cold glass of water whenever I want it is probably the only advantage to me being completely unable to have hot water. I passed it to him, and he raised an eyebrow at Bugs. Ha, like he didn’t like it too. I don’t care how much of a hardass you are, you have to like Bugs Bunny. It’s like a requirement for being alive. I went into my bedroom, got dressed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and then slid my robe on over it, because I was under no illusions that I’d get out of going. Morgan wouldn’t have shown up to go on a mission with me, of all people, if he could possibly avoid it. Hell, if it was possible he’d only look at me so he could chop my head off. Mister had gone back to sleep on my bed, lucky bastard.

                Back in the living room, Morgan was rubbing slow circles into Mouse’s head, the dog looking completely rapturous. Stupid mutt. His eyes flickered towards me like he’d heard that. I wouldn’t put it passed him, honestly. He really is too smart for his own good, sometimes. Morgan’s water glass was half empty (I’m a pessimist), and the condensation was producing yet another ring on my coffee table. I really did need to go buy coasters or something.

                “So?” I asked, sitting down beside him and crossing my legs. I was sure I looked every bit the awkward, gangly mass of limbs I was certain I was, but I had no reason to impress Morgan, so I didn’t try.  

                “Summer Fay uprising. As two friends of Summer, Queen Titania requested us, and Captain Luccio agreed that we were the best choice.”

                “Because of the leaf thingies, right?” He gave me an expression that wasn’t exactly favorable on my intelligence.

                “Yes, Warden, in cruder terms.” I nodded.

                “And how long will this mission take?”

                “A week. Two at most.” So not the longest mission I’d ever had. Chicago could probably avoid being blown off the map for that amount of time, since I wasn’t quite due for my yearly ‘save the world’ quest.

                “Groovy. Let’s hit it, I guess.” I ignored the fact that there was a decent chance this was some elaborate ruse to entrap me, because Queen Titania has never really managed to get over that whole incident where I killed her daughter. I have no idea why she isn’t more forgiving. Morgan’s lip curled up on one side in something that could be called a smile in some species of fanatical bastards. Those are easily mistaken for their other expressions, though, like smirk, snarl, and glower. He stood up and made my couch creak noisily. I grabbed my signature duster off of the amazingly plush recliner I had sitting before the fire, and shrugged it over my shoulders, then grabbed my staff from the popcorn tin by the door.

                I grinned as he led us outside and across town, towards Lincoln Park. I’d always figured that there’d be a Way to Summer through there, but I’d never had a need to check it out for myself. Besides, a guy ripping a hole in the very air doesn’t usually go over too well with the children and tourists that often pay a visit to the area. Morgan avoided them all easily, though; an old hat at moving undetected, and didn’t stop or look back at me until we reached an older oak tree near the center of the park. I could hear birds and squirrels scrabbling around as he held out a hand and almost seemed to unzip the air before him with a soft, whispered word. Warm summer air flickered out to caress my face, a sharp contrast to the late autumn chill that was covering the remainder of my body. I slipped my blasting rod from my coat sleeve to hold it between my fingers threateningly. I saw Morgan do the same with his staff, if not as obviously, as we stepped through the rip between worlds, watched it slowly stitch itself up behind us. My coat and robe were suddenly far too warm, but I wasn’t brave enough to take it off. I’d rather be a sweaty wizard than a dead one. Morgan seemed to have the same idea as he bound his hair up into a tight ponytail with a black ribbon-thing, a few beads of sweat creeping down the back of his neck.

                We walked slowly, side by side, careful as we could ever be, our eyes darting rapidly from one place to the next. There was a distinct lack of the wyldfay that often allied with Summer, and that made me a little twitchy, to say the least. I got twitchier when I saw the first of the corpses, tattered and torn, multicolored blood splattered messily around them. The corpses of the Little Folk I saw scattered among the larger bodies hit me especially hard, what with the relatively close associations I had with some of them, Toot and the rest of the Guard, mostly. Morgan noticed my expression and actually gifted me with a comforting slap on the back, which was pretty weird for him. I didn’t complain, though, and did my best to look away from all the suffering, the rent bodies. At least an hour passed before the Summer Queen actually saw fit to reveal herself to us.

                She was long and tall and beautiful, like all the Fay, with lovely white hair swept up in a loose, artfully messy bun on the top of her head. Her skin was tan with the summer sun, and made her golden cat eyes glitter and spark. Her full, pink lips were curled into a welcoming smile, and her hands were clasped politely in front of her. The long, red-orange dress she wore shifted and moved like flame, and I was reminded of Bianca’s party dress from so long ago. Bianca seemed like a child playing dress up with her mother’s gowns, compared to how the ensemble made Titania look. I can’t really ogle women who want to kill me, though. It’s against my better judgment. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the fact that she was incredibly attractive at that moment, though. Morgan bumped me not quite accidentally with his shoulder as he spoke, powerful and commanding like one of the strongest Wardens alive should be.

                “Hello, Queen Titania. I thank thee for allowing myself and mine companion into thy territory.” He then performed a courtly little bow, more polite than I’d ever thought I’d see him. Oh, of course. So the super-mega-ultra-dangerous fairy queen deserves politeness, but I don’t. Typical. No one ever respects me. Titania inclined her head in response.

                “Warden Morgan, Warden Dresden. I thank thee both for coming to mine aid. The lesser of mine court, the wyldfae allied with me, they have risen against mine rule. I have tried to crush the foolish beasts, and yet the fighting goes on. I think, perhaps, that the touch of a Wizard is needed. The battle rages on just over that hill there.” Morgan nodded, and started marching over, me racing along behind him, but Titania held out a hand and we were both forced to stop in our tracks as a raging summer wind herded us into a tight circle. “You do not think I would send you into the battle with no assistance, do you? Please, my greatest servant, Elder Gruff, shall assist you.” The wind fell away, and suddenly a being who stood maybe five two stood before us. He had goat-like features and curling horns atop his head. A few purple stoles were tied around his staff. Oh, holy shit. This was one of the Billy Goats Gruff, and he’d killed Senior Council members. Hell’s fucking Bells. I stepped back from him, a little. Morgan stood his ground.

                “Hello, Wardens,” Elder Gruff said with a nod of his head. Morgan stared at him suspiciously and, seemingly without thought, grabbed my bicep (I think it says something about me that his fingers could touch), and tugged me slightly behind him. I glared, and snarled, softly, and Elder Gruff laughed. “Warden Morgan, please, I have no wish to harm your compatriot. Besides, the power is flowing off of him in waves, equal to if not greater than your own. I’m quite certain he can protect himself.” Huh? Morgan wouldn’t be trying to protect me. He hated my guts! The only reason he’d pulled me behind him was because he didn’t trust me in a fight. He had to be tired today, though, because presenting someone you don’t trust with your exposed back isn’t generally a good idea, especially when that someone is a wizard who could Fuego a hole into said back without a second thought.

                “I do not know you, nor do I trust you. He is foolish, and becomes easily embroiled in battles with beings of greater power than his own. He is also my subordinate; therefore it is my responsibility to defend him.” Another hee-hawing, snorting laugh fell from the powerful being’s mouth as Titania faded, and we began our walk up the hill. Elder Gruff’s goat feet carried him easily, whilst my boots kept getting caught in places where summer rain had made the earth slick and muddy.

                “I question how many nights you’ve lain awake coming up with those excuses, Warden.” So. The Elder Gruff was insane. Or on some type of Fairy drug. Good to know. That knowledge could help me later on. I actually managed to get out from behind Morgan and walk between him and the Elder Gruff.

                “Elder Gruff, you’re going to have to tell me where you got that crack you’ve been smoking some time, but for now, I think it’s time to stop an uprising.” Elder Gruff cocked his head.

                “Please, do be silent, Warden Dresden. My Queen has allowed you to enter her territory with great unwillingness and apprehension. You have no say in these proceedings, and if you do something contrary to an order from me or Warden Morgan I will have to take action against you.” I blinked. I then stared. Why doesn’t anyone like me?

                “Thought you didn’t wish me harm.” He smiled, or at least produced what I assume is a smile for a goat.

                “I do not. I do not wish harm upon many that I kill. However, they all did something to offend my Queen; therefore it was my place to dispatch them. I will do the same to you.” Morgan proceeded to tug me around to his other side, which nearly resulted in the both of us tumbling to the ground, which would’ve been really embarrassing in front of the goat man. I glared at him and rolled my eyes a little as we reached the crest of the hill.

                The fighting did indeed rage on down below, where a large group of centaurs and Sidhe lords  were getting boxed in by trolls and mauled by the Little Folk. I couldn’t help but smile a little, because I’ve got this thing about the underdog coming out on top, but I knew that if the uprising was successful, the Balance would probably get ruined, and I’d seen firsthand how bad that could turn life in the mortal realm. Morgan drew his sword and led the charge down. I didn’t expect all fighting to stop at the sight of me, though, didn’t expect the wyldfay fighting to turn away from those they were assaulting and run to me, bow. I blinked.

                “’Za Lord!” came the resounding call from them, some of the smaller flitting around my head like colorful halos. “General Toot-Toot told us that you would help us in our fight to become unaligned like him!” What the hell? I felt guilt swirl around in me, because yeah, I’d known that I’d become something of an idol to some of the wyldfae, but fuck, I hadn’t known that it had gone to this extent, that Toot had been using me as an inspiration to wyldfae to break from their courts. Weren’t they allowed to do that legally anyway? I glanced over at Morgan to see that he only looked surprised, damn it. Elder Gruff seemed considering, which was likely not at all a good thing.

                “I thought the wyldfae could ally and separate whenever they wanted?” I finally asked, when the silence grew too heavy. Morgan, still looking surprised, nodded.

                “Indeed. Elder Gruff, is the Summer Court holding their wyldfae hostage?” He only smiled.

                “I had not thought your ties with the wyldfay were so deep, Warden Dresden,” he mumbled, “Though there are wyldfae dropping allegiance to the courts to join with your ‘guard’ by the hour. It is dangerous to the balance, you understand, for it is inevitable that you will eventually join with Winter, and so, yes, we are forbidding our wyldfae to do so.”

                “That is a violation of the Accords,” Morgan said, by rote, “And so, our mission has changed. We will assist the wyldfay in freeing themselves from the Court of Summer.” The tiny Fay cheered and fluttered around.

                “What would you have us do to help, ‘Za Lord?” they asked me.

                “Uh… what you’ve been doing, I guess. We’ll help.” They gave tinny little battle cries and went back to the fight, herding the Summer Fay into tight, circular groups. I had to smile a little again. The Elder Gruff didn’t seem nearly as happy. In fact, he seemed downright upset with me. I had no idea why. When he jumped at me, it was sudden, and some sort of something crashed into me and pressed my body down into the earth. He’d cast some sort of force spell at me, I supposed. It pressed solidly into my chest, hard enough that I couldn’t breathe, much less cast a spell. I heard the wood of my staff and blasting rod creaking angrily at the force exerted on them. Morgan seemed shocked, for all of a second, before he leapt into the fight, casting spells of earth at the Elder Gruff, and apparently breaking his concentration enough that I could actually manage to stand up. My thoughts flashed around rapidly for spells I could use. He was with Summer, so fire probably wouldn’t be quite as effective with him. Wind and force, then, since the few simple ice spells I knew were relatively weak, compared to the remainder of my arsenal, and all they’d do would be add weight to the ‘will convert to Winter’ theory. I yelled my wind spell out, but it only sent him stumbling back a few steps. Shit. I heard a troll get slain somewhere behind me, and a solid heat near my back.

                I glanced backward and saw Morgan there, almost mistaking him for Michael for a second, since their builds were pretty much exactly the same. If not for the hair (Michael, you see, wouldn’t be caught dead with long hair) I probably could mistake them for one another, if I was tired enough. He held his sword out, and he was casting earth spell after earth spell, only to have them deflected with ease by the goat man. I jumped when his free arm wrapped around my chest and swung me around to stand behind me.

                “Get behind me, Dresden. It’s you he’s after.” I rolled my eyes.

                “He’s after the both of us, dumbass. I can fight just as well as you. You know, if I don’t have to worry about hitting you, and all.” Elder Gruff hee-hawed again as he advanced toward us, one pace at a time, the cacophony of battle serving as an ominous soundtrack.

                “How fun! The younger does not understand, does he, Warden Morgan?” I sighed and dipped around Morgan so I could cast Forzare at the thing. A red wall, infused with slight amounts of Hellfire I prayed Morgan wouldn’t notice, crashed into him and actually managed to make him stumble to the ground.

                “I never understand anything until it tries to kill me, asshole. It’s worked pretty well so far, so I don’t see much point in changing the routine up now.” Morgan’s grip on his sword was white-knuckled, and his face somehow managed to get even tenser than it usually was.

                “Be silent, Dresden, and allow me to handle this.” I huffed.

                “He’s killed fucking Senior Council members, dumbass! I know you don’t trust me, but if you don’t want to die, maybe you should let me help you out.” He elbowed me in the stomach and sent me sprawling to the ground, groaning. Hell’s Bells. I knew he didn’t want my help, yeah, but Stones, that was a little extreme. I was just trying to avoid him dying on this particular mission, but apparently he thought I’d suddenly do a 180 and join up with the goat. Of course, the way he was acting, that was sort of a possibility, because he was pissing me off. I coughed and hacked as I yanked myself up to my feet and brandished my staff angrily.

                “I realize. Thus why I ask you to stand down. If you must do something then go help your little wyldfay.” He didn’t even bother to turn and look at me. I was pissed off. You know, just a little bit.

                “Goddamn it, you’re a tough son of a bitch, Morgan, but not tougher than him. Let me fucking help you.” A shock of silence ran through us all before he finally nodded.

                “Alright, you may assist me, but run if I ask it of you.” I rolled my eyes and walked up to stand beside him again, my magic coming to my hands quickly, solidifying itself with my thoughts. I sent out another Forzare and smiled when it crashed into goat boy, and Morgan used the moment to attempt to crush him with earth, but he broke free with ease. I fought the urge to tell Morgan that obviously if Mab was the Queen of Air and Darkness then Titania was the Queen of Earth and Light, meaning earth spells, like my fire, would be startlingly ineffective against her and her ilk. There wasn’t really time for that, though, because this goat was a badass, and he got us both backed against a wall pretty quickly. Morgan told me to run. I totally ignored him. And then I had goat arms around my neck.

                “Perhaps you ought to have listened to Warden Morgan, Warden Dresden,” Elder Gruff told me, and I was almost certain he was about to break my neck. Morgan is a quick thinker under pressure, though; I’ve got to give him that. He quickly pulled his silver leaf pin from his cloak and tossed it at Elder Gruff.

                “I would like to call in my favor to have you release both Mr. Dresden and I and these wyldfay.” The uncomfortable feeling of that much fur around my neck subsided.

                “That is technically two requests, I’m afraid, and yet I feel generous. The wyldfae are free to go, and you two… you two have a head start of two days. I’d suggest taking it, and please remember that you are not to leave the Nevernever during those two days. If you are capable of eluding me for five days, your two free included, then you may leave as well without further bother.” The wyldfae dispersed and disappeared. The Fairy Lords that had been fighting with them turned to stare at us. We ran like hell, I’ll admit it. We ran until the hill was out of sight, until we were both panting for breath, until we came across a relatively open field and dropped into the middle of it for a few moments of rest. I offered him a small smile.

                “Quick thinking, man. Thanks.” He turned a steady glare to me, and I flinched back some.

                “I told you to run, Dresden.” I sighed and wondered why the fact that I didn’t run away was all that shocking to him. I wasn’t a big fan of obeying orders, and I was even less of a fan of running from a fight.

                “Yeah, well, you can punish me later. Right now I think we’ve got bigger things to deal with than my insubordination.” He ran a hand through the loose tendrils of iron streaked hair that hung in sweaty strands around his face. I felt blood I hadn’t even noticed getting drawn leaking down my arm and hand, down my cheek, on my leg. Morgan sighed heavily.

                “There’s always a larger issue at hand than your total inability to listen to your superiors, Warden Dresden. Come, I believe we should take advantage of our ‘head start’ and clean our wounds. You especially; you’ll be of no use to either of us in such a state.” I nodded and stood, and our walk was silent and oddly companionable. I guessed nearly getting killed with a guy made you a little more comfortable around him. Never would’ve guessed, honestly.

* * *

 

                We walked for a while, slow and plodding, me with a limp as I had apparently fucked up my right leg. I was inordinately pleased when we came across a clear looking lake, although I did have to stand around for about twenty minutes while Morgan made certain that no, there were not any lake monsters in that particular lake. I mean, on a normal day, I probably would have appreciated the caution, but damn it, I hurt and I was covered in blood. I wanted to fix that, meaning as soon as he gave the all clear I stripped and jumped in. He gaped at me.

                “Dresden!” he barked, and I laughed, kicked myself back in the water so I could float. My blood grew wet in the water and drifted off my skin and oh, yeah, that was actually really dumb of me. Still, it was dispersing quickly enough, and there weren’t any enchantments on this lake, so I didn’t think this would be the mistake that finally came back to bite me in the ass.

                “It’s fine, Morgan. Hell’s Bells, I’m disgusting and I feel like shit, I think I deserve a quick bath. Join me if you want.” He sighed.

                “You need those wounds cleaned, Dresden. If you insist on being in the water, at least come to the edge.” I shrugged and swam over, the chilly water a nice refreshing shock to my systems. Morgan took my arm, the one with the cut on it, and slid some alcohol from his cloak. He poured it over the wound and I didn’t flinch. He raised an eyebrow at me for that, his fingers staying tight on my flesh.

                “What?” I asked him, a dull grin touching the corners of my lips, “You want me to cry or something? It’s alcohol. I’ve had paper cuts that hurt more than that.” He sighed and shook his head, patted my arm and slid away from me.

                “Of course not; I wouldn’t expect one of my Wardens to overreact in such a manner, most certainly not to a minor sting. I was merely a bit surprised that you showed no reaction whatsoever.” I shrugged and kicked off the rim of the lake, swam my way back out to the center, floated on my back and allowed myself to enjoy the slow burn of the Summer’s sun on my belly and chest. I hadn’t felt sun like this, hadn’t even gone swimming, since I’d lived with Ebenezer, so this was a nice break in a not so nice situation. I’d make use of it as best I could.

                “You’ve seen some of the shit I get up to, Morgan. Really it’d be more of a wonder if that feeling did actually hurt me. Anyway, you seem gross too. It won’t kill us to spare a couple of minutes for a bath and some relaxation, will it? Besides, you got hurt too.” He sat down by the bank of the lake, rucked up his robe and the legs of his pants, and dunked them in the cool water. I rolled my eyes at him and swam back, all the while making a point to clutch at his clothed knees with my soaking hands. His face twitched just slightly and I had to snicker.

                “Hell’s Bells, live a little. Promise I won’t kick you in your bare balls and flee for the hills.” His toes were brushing periodically against my stomach and ribs. “You need to cut your toenails, by the way.” It had to have been a trick of the light, but I’m almost certain that a trace of pink appeared on his tanned cheeks just then. It was gone quickly, though, which just supported my trick of the light theory.

                “I apologize,” he told me, voice almost painfully formal, and then he stood up, dragged his feet from the water, seemed to be readying himself to walk away. I clutched at his pant leg, I myself not even totally sure of the reason why.

                “Don’t worry about it. Just, come on, man. I can’t work with someone unless I’ve taken at least one bath with them. Can’t we just make it into a peace offering or something?” He sighed.

                “I don’t think we two could ever strive for peace between us, Dresden.” I bit my lip and dropped his pants. Of course. I’d almost forgotten he hated me for a few minutes. I’d almost forgotten that we’d never really be on the same side, almost forgotten that, more than anything, he wished he’d gotten to kill me all those years ago. I’d almost forgotten that I was the ticking time bomb Warlock monster beast lord Darth Vader demon. I swam away. He turned his eyes on me and suddenly shucked his gray cloak off, slid down his pants, and slipped into the water with me. I gaped; I can admit it, because he actually smiled at me. Like, a real smile, not even his traditional Hello-I-Am-A-Fanatical-Bastard-Not-A-Human smile. I almost could have mistaken him for a real, true to life human just then. “But I suppose it could do us no harm to attempt it.” I grinned and swept my arm in a wide half-circle around me, swept up a big wave of water at him. He pulled up a shield and blocked it.

                “Cheater.” I totally didn’t pout, by the way. “Oh, hey, let me go grab that alcohol off the bank. You need to clean your various injuries too.” He tried to stop me, but I, having significantly less body mass than him, swam to the edge and plucked it up, then swam back and undid the cap, which I held in my teeth and yes, I was careful not to lick the inside of it, thank you very much. No faith in me, you people. Anyway, he attempted to swim away from me but I caught him by the arm and actually managed to hold him long enough to messily pour a thick stream of the stuff onto a particularly nasty looking gash on his chest. He kicked me just hard enough in the leg that I had to let go or risk the both of us going under water. I sighed and spat the cap into my free hand. “Damn it, Morgan, what the fuck?”

                “I’m perfectly capable of cleaning my own wounds, Dresden.” I rolled my eyes 

                “Then get your ass back over here and do it.” He got his ass back over there and did it, even though with some of his marks it would’ve been way easier to just let me do it. He did at least allow me to swim the bottle back to the bank once he was done with it, although I’m pretty sure that’s just because I insisted on holding the cap. After that, we spent about ten minutes swimming around aimlessly and attempting to scrub the grime and sweat from our skin. I snuck behind him and dunked him once, and in return he ended up grabbing me by the middle and I think he was about to toss me, which would’ve been really fun if I’m honest, but then he just stopped and stared at me. His hands felt hot against my skin, almost hot enough to burn, but at least they weren’t big enough to totally wrap around me, which has been the case with some critters I’ve met. I wriggled around a little but he didn’t seem to be trying to injure me, so I didn’t try too hard to escape. He dropped me suddenly, as if I’d burned him.

                “Apologies,” he said, and I cocked my head.

                “You didn’t do anything. Anyway, we should probably be on our way. We’ve got a head start, yeah, but I can’t imagine that he did that solely out of the goodness of his heart. He’s probably planning something, with Titania.” Morgan nodded and we swam back to the bank, and when I climbed out I think he was regretting keeping his underwear instead of stripping them too, like I had, because now he had to put pants on over top of damp undies, whilst mine were perfectly dry and cozy.

                “Where do you suggest we try to go to elude him, Warden?” I shrugged.

                “Winter territory would be our best bet, honestly. I can’t promise I know anywhere all that safe for us to go, though.” Morgan shrugged.

                “Have you at least a way to keep us warm?” I snorted.

                “I wasn’t planning on getting stranded here, Morgan.”

                “Well. Do you have a contact who might be willing to look after us?”

                “I could try my godmother,” I said. He nodded.

                “Better than any other option we have, is it not?” And wasn’t that just the story of my life? Hey, man, it’s better than dying ain’t it? We may as well give it a shot and do our damndest.

                “Alrighty. I’ll try to summon her, give me a second.” I stepped away from him, picked up a stick, and drew a circle in the dirt around me. I touched it gently to close it, shut my eyes, and took in a deep breath. “Leansidhe. Leansidhe. Leansidhe. Thou godson requests an audience with thee.” I broke the circle with my foot and the call spread wide across the Nevernever. I waited a few moments and nothing happened, and I was about to give up with a thick piece of parchment came fluttering down from the sky. Black ink scrawled across it and I brought it back to Morgan.

                “I will help thee, but I shall not step foot in Summer’s territory to do so. Come to mine garden and I shall safeguard thee until such time that thou and thou companion might return to the mortal plane,” he read aloud, and I huffed. “Do you know how to get to her gardens?” I glared at the brilliant summer grass.

                “No idea in the world. I assume if we get into Winter territory, at the least, I could try to call her again and she might at least attempt to tell us how to get there. Hey, though, if we can get there in two days we’ve got at least a ghost of a chance, yeah?” He looked somewhat annoyed, but then he just started stomping off in one direction. I stumbled along after him until I caught up and grinned. He raised his eyebrows at me and maybe it was a wizard thing, being totally unable to do just one.

                “There’s little to be grinning about, at the moment, Dresden.” I continued to grin.

                “I make it a point to smile whenever I plan on doing something idiotic. Makes me feel more like I’ve got the upper hand. Besides, haven’t you thought of it? We’ve been hanging out together for like, a while, and you haven’t tried to kill me once yet!”    

                “Believe me when I tell you I’ve considered it.” Was that… was that a joke? Was Morgan actually displaying a sense of humor right now? Was he even allowed to do that? Wow; pretty shocking, really.

                “Don’t worry about it, everyone that meets me does. Murphy’s tried before.” He nodded thoughtfully.

                “Murphy is one of your little mortal friends, isn’t she? I don’t believe I’ve ever met her.” I snickered.

                “You haven’t met any of my friends.” He cocked his head.

                “I’ve met that Marcone fellow, the Baron.” I choked on my own tongue.

                “Marcone is _not_ my friend. We’re allies at the best of times.” That seemed to confuse him but he didn’t press it, thank god. We walked for hours as the air around us grew steadily chillier and the sky darker. We were on the edge of Winter territory when we finally decided we should hunker down for the night. Morgan found a relatively safe looking overhang for us to sleep under, and though I’d never admit to it, I slept oddly well that night because I knew that if anything attacked he would be capable of killing it.        

* * *

 

                Morgan dragged me quite forcefully back to the world of the living the moment the sun began to crest over a distant mountain. It was early enough, however, that the landscape was still had that strange, bluish gray tone of evening, and I wanted nothing more than another hour’s sleep. Morgan wasn’t having it though, and basically dragged me from the overhang to the tune of my pathetic groaning. After that he continued to drag me along until we crossed the border into Winter. I listed pretty much aimlessly and pathetically along beside or behind him. I crashed into his back when he stopped walking and nearly fell on my ass, but he caught me by the arm.

                “I believe we have crossed into Winter territory, Dresden. It’d likely be a good idea for you to attempt to summon your godmother again, as she is currently our best option for survival.” I giggled and stumbled again even though he hadn’t let go of me. The grass had grown quickly slick with frost once we hit Winter.

                “Never thought that _Lea_ would ever be my best option for not dying. Looks like everything I know is getting put on its head this mission. Gimme a second, I’ll give it a try,” I told him. I bent clumsily at my waist and nearly toppled, but I did manage to draw the circle and fill it with my will. I stood up straight, called for Lea, and got nothing more than another note for my effort. I brought it to Morgan like I had the last one.

                “Dearest godson, thou and thou companion shall reach mine gardens if thou continue on in the direction thou art going. I wait for thee patiently and wish that I could help thee arrive here, but mine Queen has requested that I not interfere beyond offering thou sanctum,” he read, and I shrugged.

                “Looks like that’s the best we’ve got, then. Come on, Morgan.” He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t, which I was oddly grateful for. We started walking again, me feeling steadily more awake and stable as we did so. In a way, I was actually feeling pretty comfortable, and almost optimistic. I really should know better than to do something silly like that, but hey, everyone makes mistakes every now and then. I think my mistakes might be the only ones that result in giant ass blizzards, though.

                Also, I am not exaggerating about that in any way. The moment I had that thought about optimism and comfort the thing just sprouted up out of nowhere, a gigantic mass of swirling snow and ice that was nearly impossible to see through, much less walk in. The wind whipped around so noisily that Morgan and I had to yell for the other to hear us.

                “Warden Dresden!” I heard him yell, but I couldn’t actually see him. That frightened me on some base, instinctual level, even though I knew that logically he couldn’t possibly be more than a few feet away. I groped out sightlessly to try and grab him.

                “I’m over here, Morgan!” I yelled back, and then I felt him grab me and pull me near him. He felt like a furnace in the frozen wasteland, and his chest was solid against my back. He walked with us like that, one of his arms around my chest and the other presumably held out beside him or in front of us, obviously seeking shelter. The ice bit at my skin and my eyes painfully, and some of it dug into the wound on my arm and while the numbing was nice, the sharp little pinpricks of tiny icicles making the wound go down deeper wasn’t. Finally, though, Morgan walked us into some place dark and while it was cold, the wind was blocked. The darkness was oppressive, though, and I realized I’d probably gone a little snow blind. Morgan helped me to sit and then dropped down beside me. I held my hand out. “Ignus, infusiarus,” I muttered, and a smallish ball of flame erupted in my hand and lit the area immediately around us. Also, it was super warm, which was a total plus. Morgan watched it warily for a second or two before he turned his attention elsewhere. My face being that elsewhere.

                “Interesting little trick,” he mumbled, pressed a little closer to share in the heat. I allowed it gracefully, easily, because hell, Morgan might not be my best friend, but I didn’t want him to freeze to death. He had saved my life, once.  

                “Yeah. Just be careful not to touch it, alright? It’s basically a tiny sun. It’ll burn the hell out of you.” He sighed.

                “I managed to assume as much, Warden. Please do remember I’ve been alive for far longer than you.” It was weird to think that, considering he looked ten years older than me at the most. I knew that was a pretty big lie, though; Morgan was at least a century old, although I wasn’t sure of his exact age. I’d never asked, honestly. It just hadn’t seemed all that important before. I nodded.

                “Yeah, well. I just prefer to be safe.” He looked away from me and I couldn’t help but feel like that meant something bad was about to happen, like he didn’t want to see my face anymore. I had thought we were getting along.

                “You’ve been using fire for far too long to have accidentally burning someone be a risk for you. Were I to guess I’d say you’d never burned anyone without fully meaning to do it.” I clenched my free fist and I recognized that for what it was, for a jab at my past, for a jab about DuMorne. Obviously he didn’t want me to get the impression that he actually liked me now or anything stupid like that.

                “Don’t be an ass, Morgan.”

                “I was merely making an observation. If it is incorrect, feel free to correct me.”

                “Do I count?” He whipped his head back around to me, looking confused.

                “What, Warden?”

                “I asked if I counted or not.”

                “You’ve burned yourself accidentally?” I nodded because I had. A lot. Fire is a dangerous thing, a base creation that’s hard to control. I’d been burned in the attempt, had more than one scar to prove it, although the ones on my hand marked the worst of them. Usually, though, when I burned myself it was to keep the fire from going out of control and burning someone else.

                “I have. Fire doesn’t listen as well as earth does. Might be why I like it so much, reminds me of me and all that shit.” He shook his head and grabbed my shoulders, turned me to face him, set his lips like stone.

                “Whatever you may think, Warden, what I said was in no way an insult or an attempt to bring up old wounds. It was a compliment of your control, as a matter of fact. You do not like fire for its tendency to disobey, Warden. You like it because it represents cleansing, rebirth. That, at least, was the conclusion I arrived at after much thought.” Those words made my blood run cold for a quick moment. Rebirth and cleansing. Yeah, maybe so. Maybe I was enacting some kind of baptism by fire. It wasn’t the worst theory I’d ever heard. Hell, for all I knew it might’ve been right. I try not to psychoanalyze myself too much.

                “I don’t know, Morgan. Hell’s Bells, that sounds like a pretty favorable thing to say about someone you don’t trust, especially when you consider just how I killed DuMorne.” He took a deep breath and it looked like he was gearing himself up to say something important, something big.

                “Perhaps I do not distrust or dislike you as much as I appear to. Perhaps I have… perhaps I have managed to come to a different conclusion about what happened all those years ago.” I dropped my little sun and tackled the son of bitch. Different conclusions? What the fuck. All those years of fearing for my life, of him being my very own boogeyman, and he’d come to _different conclusions_ now of all fucking times? Every scrap of anger I’d ever felt towards him, every bit of rage and fear and sorrow came flooding out of me all at once.

                “You bastard! You huge fucking asshole! How dare you say that to me? You wanted me dead, Morgan, you know that. You were sad when you didn’t get to see my head roll, and you were angry. I was sixteen, Morgan. I was sixteen and I was scared and the Merlin hated me because he hated my mom. You Council fucks never did a damn thing for me when I was in the system, not even when my power came in. You never did anything even though it was hell. You let DuMorne adopt me and he was such a _good man_ that no matter how many times you got reports of black magic near him you never did a damned thing about it! I got my ass kicked I don’t know how many times and I got chased by an Outsider and I got coerced into a deal by a fucking Sidhe and I never saw hide nor hair of anyone from the Council until DuMorne went up in fucking smoke!” He clutched my biceps to keep me from hitting him, but he didn’t try to throw me off of him or hurt me or anything. He just lay there and took it, his face blank as all. 

                “I’m sorry,” he said finally, and I let loose something that was almost like a scream.

                “You don’t get it! All this time, Morgan. I’ve been so damned scared of you. So damned scared that you’d finally get your shot in. You don’t understand. I’ve had a lot of boogeymen. You know, I actually thought that once I killed DuMorne the White Council would help me. I thought they’d do something for me. I thought that, god forbid, I’d have a good life from there on out. Turns out you fuckers were worse; at least DuMorne never tried to really kill me until there at the end. I don’t know if sorry is good enough, Morgan, not anymore. I’ve done so much to try to prove to you that I was on your side. I don’t know what the hell else I could do. I don’t. I don’t know of any other steps I could possibly take.”

                “No more are necessary. I am sorry that I took so long, but you must understand that the Merlin is the one I must listen to. He believed, after his Soul Gaze with you, that you were dangerous. I am a soldier, I will admit that, and I must obey the Merlin. He wished you dead. I should have seen before.” I drooped and laughed into his chest, my back aching at the awkward angle.

                “Fucking bastard. Fucking fanatical asshole bastard. When did you get this change of heart, huh? How long have you been just playing a part? Tell me that, will you?”

                “The eve I saved your life. During that debacle I discovered that you were as against Warlocks as I. I discovered that you were fighting for what you felt was right. You have not deserved the distrust I have displayed to you hence and I have not fully felt it, but you know as well as I that it is difficult to change what one feels for a person so quickly and even more difficult to explain such a drastic alteration in personality to one’s peers.” I laughed harder.

                “You pretended to still hate me for all this time just so your friends wouldn’t be confused? Just so the Merlin wouldn’t be upset with you? Stars and Stones. Stars and fucking Stones, man.” His hands dropped to my waist and it was so dark that I could hardly make out the shape of his face and I just kept laughing.

                “It was quite foolish of me. You are no Warlock, Dresden. I see that, now especially. No Warlock could possibly be so… so foolish. Though I would never ask you to accept it now, after all this time, I feel I must apologize again.” He thought Warlocks couldn’t be stupid? Well, he hadn’t met some of the dumbasses I’ve met. I slowed my pathetic laughter to periodic giggles and sat up straight again, only vaguely wondering why he was still letting me straddle him like this, much less why he’d allowed me to knock him over in the first damned place. 

                “Well, you said yourself I’m foolish. You’re not my best friend, Morgan. You never will be, probably. Hell, I don’t even know if I could ever conceivably even like you. I won’t lie to you about that. There’s just too much bad blood between us for that. I can accept your apology, though; build at least that one bridge. Maybe we can cross the bad blood eventually. Now, let me up, dick, so I can get this place lit up again. It’s cold.” He dropped his hold on my hips and I climbed off of him to bring back my little ball of light. It revealed that his face had been flushed brilliantly. I gave him a weird look but he didn’t comment, so I dropped it. After that, we sat around in mostly silence for a while, but the wind whipping around outside ruined some of the effect. 


	2. Chapter 2

Morgan’s POV

                He was a fool, a damn fool, an oblivious fool. Reckless, dangerous, stupid, wild, insane, and a hundred other words could describe him, but I’d begun to enjoy fool. He was a fool when he fought, a fool when he refused to listen, a fool when he smiled, a fool when he trusted. I’d never met someone so… so like him. I’d never met someone so willing to believe another person so fully. Only a fool would have accepted my apology as he had, after all I’d done to him. Only a fool would allow a man who’d more than once attempted to kill him so close. Only a fool could curl beside me this way, a ball of bright orange-yellow light all that separated us.

                We’d been in the cave for over an hour and the blizzard outside hadn’t let up at all. Harry’s little sun was beginning to dim a bit as he exerted himself maintaining it, and I’d taken to adding to it myself, periodically, although fire was far from my element of choice. It was becoming obvious that death would be a strong possibility if we went on this way, however. We’d need a real, not magically maintained fire, and for that we’d need wood to burn. I stood and Dresden jolted from his stupor. I could’ve killed him a hundred times over, by now, and mentally I called him a fool again.

                “What’re you doing?” he asked me, and I sighed.

                “We cannot go on like this; we need a mortal fire. I am going outside to retrieve wood.” He blinked at me.

                “That’s dumb; I can keep this up until the blizzard ends, don’t worry about it. If you go out there you’re going to get lost.” I shook my head.

                “I know well enough how to navigate a storm. I will be back within the hour. Do not leave here.” At that, I left before he had a chance to leap to his feet to stop me. I steadfastly avoided glancing back at his face as I fled for fear of what I would see reflected upon it.

                As soon as I stepped outside I understood that I had underestimated the strength of this blizzard. It blinded me in seconds and disoriented me shortly thereafter. I could hardly see a foot in any direction for the Sidhe-borne snow. I knew that my thoughts from earlier remained true, however; we needed the wood if we were to live for certain, and I would get it. I held rank, and therefore it was my responsibility to make certain that Dresden lived through this mission. _I question how many nights you’ve lain awake coming up with those excuses, Warden._ The Elder Gruff’s words teased at the sides of my mind. Moronic, idiotic beast, surely of the Fay for how its words twisted honeyed doubt into one’s thoughts. For my Warden I felt only professional admiration, and perhaps a sort of longing for friendship, but nothing more and the creature was cruel for even putting the thought in my mind. I shook my head and felt myself silly for it because it only disoriented me more. I do not know for how long I wandered through the bitter snow, but eventually I could walk no more and collapsed. The ice on my skin had begun feeling warm and soft by the time the world of white around me faded to darkness.

* * *

 

Harry’s POV

                I paced tiredly around the cave, my little sun flickering wildly in my worry and annoyance. Morgan had been right about that much, at least; this spell was pretty draining simply because it produced so much heat. I’d be able to keep it going for another half hour, maybe less. Morgan had exceeded the time he’d set and he was about to exceed the time I was willing to wait. I wasn’t going to let the damned bastard stay out there and die by himself in the cold. He didn’t deserve that whether I liked him or not. No one did. I swept around suddenly and walked outside before I could think about it and remember that, despite how it probably seemed sometimes, I was not actually suicidal.

                The snow actually hurt where it hit me, but I ignored it. My little sun grew even harder to maintain because there was pretty much literally no heat in the air for me to draw from. I had no idea where Morgan would’ve gone, by this point. It had been a while; he could’ve gone at least a mile by now, maybe more depending on how much the blizzard affected him. The wind blew hard enough that every step was a fight. I was pretty sure that I’d made a mistake and that I’d die out there with him (or by myself because he could’ve made it back to the cave) when I tripped over something. Or, more accurately, someone. I bent down to check his pulse, found that he just barely had one, and hauled him up to a limp, half-standing position that’d make it easier to move him. Also, Morgan is fucking heavy and I nearly froze to death in my attempts to carry him back to the cave. He didn’t even have any wood with him, the bastard. I mean, I probably couldn’t have carried it back with us too, but still. It’s the sentiment.

                Anyway, since I’d made certain to go in a straight line from the cave, which, I guess Morgan had too, I did manage to get us back there even though there were a few particularly horrifying moments wherein I thought I’d gotten lost. I too was frozen down to my bones when I got us inside the cave and lay him down. I then realized that he could very easily still freeze to death and decided that maybe I should deal with that. Shit, shit, shit, Hell’s Bells. Gotta do something. Yeah. Okay, so remove wet clothes. Were his clothes wet? I checked them and found that yeah, they were, where the snow had melted on them. I stripped him quickly and desperately tried to recall the first aid courses Murphy had made me take after a particularly harrowing experience with a very bloody knife wound that we don’t talk about anymore, thank you very much.

                I had him in as warm and as dry an environment as was available; I couldn’t really do much better in that regard. I couldn’t take his temperature to know how bad he was. I knew he was unconscious, yeah, but I could see that he was breathing at least relatively steadily and his pulse had stayed recognizable so I’d probably found him pretty soon after he fell unconscious. The next step was doing something to warm him up. I couldn’t give him anything to drink, obviously, so I’d have to do it some other way. My clothes were still mostly dry, my coat especially, and it was charmed to hold in warmth. They’d have to be good enough blankets, I guessed. I stripped my coat first and wrapped him up in it like a baby in swaddling, thankful for once that I was so damned tall and was therefore forced to wear clothes way too wide for me to make them fit me in length. I used the Warden cloak to wrap around his face, kept just enough of it visible that he could breathe and speak and see, if he woke up. My shirt and jeans I had to keep so I didn’t freeze to death, since that would’ve been pretty counterproductive. I did finally decide to tuck myself under my jacket with him, though, to share in the warmth. His skin felt like ice to the touch, but after about ten minutes passed he was shivering and I felt a surge of relief.

                He’d probably be okay, then; shivering meant his body was doing its part to warm him again, and I hadn’t seen any signs of frostbite when I’d taken off the wet articles. Just to be safe, I un-tucked my hand and arm from the cocoon of my jacket and restarted my little sun spell. The heat from that made the little area almost warm again, which, I had to admit, was pretty nice. Morgan still didn’t wake up for about a half an hour, and when he did he was groggy and out of it.

                “Dresden?” he grumbled, “Harry? What has… why are we…?” I hushed him.

                “Don’t talk too much, Morgan, you almost froze to death. If I hadn’t run out there to save your ass, you would have. I guess we’re even now, for that time you gave me CPR.” He sighed.

                “You tasted like candy and cheap coffee,” he told me, and I’m certain that my eyebrows made themselves a new home in my hairline for that.

                “I figured it would’ve been more like smoke,” I replied, and he laughed.

                “There was a little, on your lips. I recall that I found it odd that a Warlock tasted like sugar. I decided soon after, once I realized exactly what had happened, that you were no Warlock. No Warlock would be as stupid as you.” He sounded almost drunk; his S’s were slurred a little and some of his words cut off halfway. I’m only mostly sure that that was exactly what he said.

                “I don’t want to burst your bubble or anything, but I think you’re wrong about that. I’ve met plenty of dumbass Warlocks.” He shook his head and partially dislodged the cloak. I fixed it.

                “Not like you. You trust too much. You trust me enough to wrap me nude in your cloak and lie beside me. You should not. I might… you’re such a fool. I tried to kill you. I should not be…” I hushed him again.

                “The cold is messing with your head. Sleep for a while longer while you get warmer. We’ll be alright until the blizzard ends.”

                “I may only hope,” he whispered, “Please do try to forget what I’ve said. I certainly shall.” He was asleep again shortly after and I snorted at nothing. The blizzard outside was fading fast when he awoke about two hours after that, and I was realizing that a night and half a day had passed while we were trapped in the cave. We had half a day left to find Lea’s gardens. Morgan seemed to come to his senses and realize that pretty fast too because he jerked fully awake pretty quickly and sat up. My cloak was settled on top of his head like the strangest of hats and half of my coat was pooled in his lap. Also, he has a nice chest, for an old guy; broad and oddly tan, but then he didn’t live in Chicago like I did. As a matter of fact, I had absolutely no idea where he normally stayed, when he wasn’t stalking me. What was I talking about, anyway? Oh, yeah. We needed to leave.

                We stood at pretty much the same time and he gathered his clothes to dress with hardly a sideways glance to me. I put my cloak and coat back on, the warm leather falling neatly and heavily over my shoulders. We fled the moment the snow had thinned enough that we could see through it. We were well on our way before he even bothered speaking.

                “Why did you save me, Dresden? What reason could you possibly have to disobey my orders and run out into a blizzard to rescue me?” I cocked my head and grinned because I felt like being an asshole just then.

                “You might be a fanatical bastard, Morgan, but no one deserves to die alone and cold.” He suddenly clapped me on the shoulder and I jumped a little because I couldn’t recall many occasions where he’d touched me like a friend would. I didn’t knock it off, though.

                “Thank you,” he told me, and I shrugged.

                “Well. Maybe you aren’t as much of a dick as I thought, too. Could’ve had something to do with it, but you know, whatever. Hell’s Bells, man, how much farther could that damned garden possibly be?” Morgan politely didn’t mention this obvious attempt to change the subject after I ran off my mouth for no conceivable reason as I am honestly wont to do. We walked through the chill until nightfall, and periodically we’d chat mundanely.

                I learned that he was a fan of jazz, since he’d developed a taste for it when he was a teenager during the Jazz Age, and that he liked cheesy horror movies. Not because they were so cheesy and therefore funny, no, but because he hadn’t seen a modern movie in a really, _really_ long time and therefore thought that the effects were actually good. I vowed to bring him to Billy’s next movie night. It was getting sort of boring sitting by myself in what had been dubbed the Wizard Area anyway, since it had been decreed that, after breaking his laptop, I wasn’t allowed within ten feet of any of Billy’s electronics, including the TV, even though it was an old model and I’d told him that I didn’t usually break those. Much pouting had been involved in that, by the way, and it was from both sides (Andi and Georgia wanted me to be allowed on the couch too). It still hadn’t worked, though, because Billy really does love his gadgets. He had been nice enough to move the TV to a place where I could still see and hear it from the Wizard Area, though.

                In return for telling me that stuff, I informed him that I liked 90’s rock bands like the Foo Fighters and fantasy movies that reminded me of fantasy books and fantasy role playing games. I then spent at least a half hour explaining Dungeons and Dragons to him (But why do you need so many die? One of them has twenty sides, there is no reason why that should not be enough options! And these magic mechanics seem incredibly flawed. This game sounds absolutely ludicrous!). He did finally get all the ‘Lawful Good’ and ‘Chaotic Good’ stuff I’d babbled at him about over the years, though, and I marked that as progress.

                Throughout all that, though, no matter what we spoke of and whether or not we were laughing the thought of our short time was stark in both of our minds, and when night fell we ignored the fact that we were both tired and injured because we knew that at this point, nearly any future we could count on either involved us being safe or dead. Really our only hope was the blizzard holding Elder Gruff back like it had us. We finally ended up collapsing a few hours before dawn, and we took turns taking hour naps before we stood and got moving again with the sunrise.

* * *

 

                We kept moving all that day even though we were starving and I was blatantly considering shoe leather, but that night we had to stop and create a makeshift camp with a fire and everything. We then proceeded to hunt for berries and other probably not poisonous things, at which point we sat by our fire and ate like totally broke kings. I snorted.

                “You think Luccio thought this was going to happen?” I asked, and Morgan raised his eyebrows. Yeah, had to be a Wizard thing.

                “I should certainly hope not. I’d thought that she was certainly fonder of us than that.” I laughed and propped myself up on him because he was closer to the fire than me, which was super nice. Also, fucker is a furnace when he doesn’t have hypothermia. I rolled my eyes at him.

                “Not that, dumbass; of course she didn’t know that we’d end up getting fucked by a goat. Stars and Stones, I’m not that stupid. I meant that I wanted to know if she thought this mission would force us to get friendly with one another.” Understanding dawned on his face, and I noticed that where he’d been tense when my body first started propping itself up on his, he was now relaxing some. I felt like he really was a friend, at that moment.

                “Ah. Perhaps she did; she’s always been a rather intuitive woman.” I nodded.

                “She was your Master, right?” He agreed and I smiled. “I always thought you were lucky for that, to have such a good Master. DuMorne was amazing at what he did, I can attest to that much; he taught me with pain and it served him well. I learned fast. I always… I’ve wondered if maybe I would’ve turned out differently if I’d had someone else as my Master way back when, maybe Eb like after the trial.” He shook his head and his eyes closed and I realized suddenly that _he was trusting me._ The shock of it made my face twist in what was certainly a strange and unappealing way, but thankfully his eyes were shut so I have no one to tell me stories about it. I imagine it was sort of similar to one of those dogs with the pugged up faces, though. Pugs I think they’re called. I promise I’m not this dumb all the time. Ahem.  

                “Your life would have been better, perhaps, but I cannot say for certain that you yourself would have been. Facing what you have and living through it is quite a large reason why you do what you do, or so I’ve surmised. DuMorne was… he was a Warlock. He did awful things to you that I cannot and will not imagine, and he did it under my nose. I am glad that I failed to execute you. I am glad that you live. I am glad that I have come to know you,” he said, and I snickered.

                “Yeah? Well, you’re not so bad yourself, Morgan, once someone chips off all the bastard layers. You remind me of some mortals I know, you know that? Jaded. You’re like an old cop.” He allowed a half smile to break the stone of his features. It made him look like someone I’d like to have a beer with.

                “I am not so old, Warden.” And now he was cracking jokes again. Hell’s Bells, where had this man been all my life? I’d have liked him a lot better if I had known this side of him.  

                “You know that isn’t what I meant. Still, I admire you, when I see that in you. It means… you’re a good man under it all, Morgan. I know I can trust in that. You’re… not predictable, exactly, but I understand people like you. It’s nice, to be with someone and not expect them to throw me a curveball every five minutes.” He laughed. Had I ever heard him laugh before? Maybe I had, but I didn’t notice it like I did this. Low and rich, grinding like stones worn smooth by wind and water and age. I’m getting distracted, aren’t I? I think I should stop now.

                “I don’t think I can say the same of you, Harry. You, I believe, are the master of curveballs.” I peeked up at him and found that his eyes were still closed, but his face was lax.

                “How so? I always figured I was pretty easy to understand; fuck with me or someone I love, I fuck with you.” 

                “You are quite different from most Wizards. You display your magic openly and attempt to teach mortals at the cost of your safety, as you know the Council looks down upon such things. You fight against Warlocks yet protest at their deaths. You trust a man now who you’ve long professed to hate.” I shook my head.

                “I never said I hated you, Morgan. I hated that you were so willing to see me dead without knowing my side. As for the rest of that, well, I like mortals. They’re innocent in this big theatre we live in, yet they’re such big pieces, such great forces. We fear them and they don’t believe in us. I’ve always thought it was kind of funny. Besides, despite their flaws, most mortals are a lot more open minded than you and the rest of the Council would believe. If you just show them magic, and don’t let them come up with some mundane way to explain it, they’ll believe. Hell, a lot of them want to believe anyway. They’re good to me, they’re good people, and I want them to be able to defend themselves. I want them to know how strong they really are. Leaving them in the dark is making them sitting ducks. I feel like it’s my place to help them learn, Council be damned. Also, I don’t protest against all of them dying; only the ones that could be rehabilitated, taught, helped. So many Wizards, Morgan, a lot of them just kids, and you know from me that the Merlin is most certainly not always right. Just because someone does something bad doesn’t mean they’re ruined forever. A lot of the times it just means they didn’t know any better.” His eyes opened and his dark gaze fixed itself on me. I was taller than him, I knew I was, but it didn’t feel like it at that particular moment.   

                “I’m coming to realize that, Harry. Do you believe that we could change things? That I could atone for following without seeing for so long? The Council is necessary, I realize this, but perhaps… it is necessary in smaller doses, and with less… less corruption, less intolerance, more… more of you, I suppose. More trust and more understanding and more forgiveness.” I stared at him as if he were insane. He returned it, but slightly more politely. I’d never thought I’d hear Donald Morgan, of all people, offer to be a revolutionary with me. I thought suddenly of Eb and the Gray Council. We needed more Wardens.

                Could I truly trust in what he was saying, though? What if he was just trying to get something incriminating out of me, what if he’d been ordered to do this? I bit my lip and he spoke again.

                “After all this time, Harry, I’m tired of being a soldier. I want to make this world better, truly better. Perhaps death is not the way to do so anymore. Times have changed; magic is growing less and less prominent, all of the supernatural is. I do not know the cause, but I do know that the way we are going is not the way to fix it. It is no longer the middle ages. It is time for us to move on, as time has.” I felt, for a moment, like an elf being persuaded to go to the Gray Havens, what with all the talk of letting time go on.

                “There’s… there’s already a movement, kind of. I don’t know everyone involved, it’s safer for all of us that way, but I do know we need more than just the young Wardens on our side. We need a veteran. If you’re interested, well, I wouldn’t bar you entry.” He looked a touch surprised.

                “Already?”

                “Yeah. We’re called the Gray Council. I’ve been seeing something, Morgan, something bad. There’s some greater force at work behind everything that’s happened recently, from Sells right on up to the Necromancers. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but I do know they have Wizards involved. I’ve been calling them the Black Council, though. The White Council wouldn’t listen to me, about any of it, so Eb and I formed the Gray Council to move against the Black and, in some ways, the White Council. It you want to help, I invite you to do so. We meet on Tuesdays and you have to bring snacks when you come. Also, we speak fucking English there, not Latin. In fact, anyone who I hear speaking Latin is immediately disbarred.” People say I have something of a talent for making people laugh at really inappropriate times, and somehow that talent apparently even extends to Morgan. It’s weird.

                “I will be a part of this ‘Gray Council’, then. Shall I bring cookies?” I cackled.

                “Nah, we’re the Dark Side, so we’ve already got tons of those. Like, cookies in surplus. We have storage units filled entirely with steaming chocolate chip cookies. We are severely lacking in potato chips, though, so we could use about a storage unit and a half of those.” There went the eyebrows again.

                “I’ll bring a bag. I don’t have a job besides this, you know.” I smirked.

                “Seriously? I would’ve figured you’d have gotten job offers from every mall in the country looking for a rent-a-cop. ‘Cease, foul thieves! Drop that merchandise, else I shall give thou a haircut thou shalt not ever forget!’ and all that.” I hold that he’s really weird for finding that funny, but he obviously did. Or maybe he was just pretending so he could have an excuse to slap me on the back and leave suspiciously hand-shaped bruises.

                “Perhaps I’ll look into it after this.”

                “If we’re not skewered by a goat, you mean.”

                “Quite,” he replied.

                “Hell’s Bells, that’s going to be a really shitty thing to put on my tombstone. Here lies Harry Dresden. He was murdered right in the face by a goat. They’re just going to have to smash that one with all that he died doing the right thing crap. All my enemies are going to laugh at me. I’ll never be able to show my ghost-face in this town again.” If he laughed much more I was pretty sure his lungs were going to explode. Lungs couldn’t handle laughing so much after being disused for so long, could they? I was pretty sure they couldn’t. I felt his hand settle on my arm and twist me around to face him. He looked… really serious. His eyes were fixed on the lower part of my face, I assume in an attempt to avoid a Soul Gaze with me. His fingers spasmed where they clutched at me, and his lower lip wavered as if he were about to speak. I’d never seen him like that before. He leaned in closer to me and I felt my heart stutter faster for no reason.

                “Morgan?” I asked, and I could hear the start of my name fall from his lips before a goat crashed through the snow and held a weapon on us. We were on our feet in seconds, our own foci drawn, mine glowing orange and his an earthy brownish green. Elder Gruff laughed.

                “Have I interrupted? Such a shame. Were you truly about to tell him, oh Warden? Or would you have been content to gaze into warm eyes and kiss sweet lips? Shall I leave for a moment or three, so that you may have your happy ending before your death?” Morgan was apparently struck dumb, so I did the talking.

                “You’ve got some weird ideas on relationship progression, goat boy. We only just recently became friends. It’ll take at least a year for us to fall madly, goo-goo eyes in love with each other.” Elder Gruff coughed out a laugh.

                “I believe one of you may have already gotten a head start, little Wizardling.” Obviously he’d received a head injury at some point during his journey. I then proceeded to shoot the motherfucker with a nice jet of force that hardly sent him skidding a few feet backwards. That was enough to wake Morgan up, though, because then he started working his earth at the Elder Gruff too. I knew in seconds that this shit wasn’t going to work; he was too powerful, too much, too everything. He used fire and wind, too hot fire, fire he drew from his body and not from the air like my owned. He was quick to burn me, but then Morgan shoved me behind him so hard that I nearly fell as he drew his sword and charged. The Elder Gruff’s fire blazed towards him and for a moment I was certain he was going to die. I felt strangely sick, all of the sudden, afraid and nervous and angry and all of those other squeamish little emotions. I lunged forward, ready to knock him to the ground and hopefully save his ass. And then everything stopped, froze, stilled. Well, not everything. Mostly just Elder Gruff and his magic. My neck and the part of my chest not covered with my coat stung and ached where the fire had struck. I heard a voice, soft and fragile and easily recognized.

                “Run with thou companion, sweet. You are a day’s travel from mine gardens yet, but I can only hold him for a half. Go quickly, and create enough space that thou may reach me for thou final day here in this world.” Morgan looked confused and in pain, his own chest burned as well, and I dragged him up to his feet and ran with him into the thick, cloying darkness, into the lightly falling clumps of snow. Elder Gruff remained frozen where he’d been left, his fire arching forever through the air before him. I’d owe Lea one for this, certainly, but for once I didn’t totally mind, since I’d managed to save Morgan’s ass, and mine, again. For now, because he’d be free again by noon, since it was probably about midnight now. Still, just two more days. Two more days, we could do it. We had to. And really, just a half day. All we had to do was get to the gardens. Just get to the gardens and we’d be fine. Finally Morgan became cognizant again.

                “Harry, what has happened?”

                “Lea’s helping us. She’s gotten him stuck there for about half of a day. She said we’re about a day from the gardens, though. If we can just get there before he catches up, we’ll be fine.” Morgan nodded.

                “Of course. I suppose I must thank you again, Harry. You have… I… soon, Harry, we need to speak.” I nodded.  

                “Whatever, my heart is beating too fast for me to think about much right now. When we get to the gardens, you can tell me whatever you want. I’ve got to… we’ve just got to run.” I realized suddenly that I was still holding his hand, and just jerked it hard to make sure he’d keep up with me. The whole world was a blur. I breathed fast and hard, and Morgan did too. Both of our burns hurt; we’d have to treat them. Eventually. Those sounds of our breathing, and the sound of our feet crunching the snow, were the only noise. I found myself missing the conversation and the laughter, and hoped I’d get it back. Even I was getting confused by how much I’d started to like Morgan. My fingertips clenched around his again and we kept running.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I'm not usually a fan of gigantic author's notes, but it's at least somewhat necessary now, even though this is probably a really dumb place to put this, but it's the best I've got at the moment and I can always put it elsewhere later, but yeah. Anyway, what this is about is that I'm probably going to not have too much more for this fandom right now, just the rest of this fic, a fic that's lying complete in my documents, the last part of the Harry in Fairytales series, and possibly a Thomas/Harry, although I don't know how well that one will work out since I have only gotten the idea and no actual story done, so it might not get posted ever. 
> 
> What I was considering doing, though, is going out with a bang, by which I mean creating a giant-ass film noir, thirties style Harry/John AU (still with magic, obviously, because I can't imagine Harry without it), mostly because it would give me an excuse to watch so many movies and shove some of my favorite literary characters right up in that style, and that would make me smile. If no ones interested, though, I'll leave that particular monster in my skull where it likely deserves to stay. Or I can make my big bang something else, or nothing at all, or whatever. I'm not very good at this, as anyone with a brain can probably tell.
> 
> Now, as for the other thing I was going to talk about, sometime within the next week I'm going to put everything that's on my fanfiction.net account on here too, partly so I can stop getting all confused about what fandom knows me from where, and partly because someone on there told me that this account was plagiarizing the stuff from that account and I kind of freaked out a little before I realized that I was being really stupid and the one this person was talking about was also me, therefore could not have plagiarized me. So, yeah, to prevent anymore minor heart attacks, that's a thing that's going to happen, so don't be shocked at the giant influx of fics from entirely different fandoms here. Which, I guess I probably should have done that a while ago for exposure reasons or whatever, but I have never claimed to be not a total moron. 
> 
> Well, thus ends the enormous author's note, and therefore I'm going to stop typing this before it grows to novella lengths and outshines that chapter right up there. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Also, I still have like half the available characters left after typing all of this. That's really weird. Just thought I should inform the world of that. I think I need to go to bed now.


	3. Chapter 3

Morgan’s POV

                Perhaps it was not he who was the fool, but myself. I’d been… perhaps it was cruel of me, but for a moment I’d been glad for Elder Gruff’s interruption. I had nearly told him of my delusions, of these… these silly feelings. I could have destroyed all that he had given me, the friendship that, perhaps, I could one day hold more permanently. Although, Elder Gruff had as good as told him for me. Perhaps he’d not even have noticed had I said my piece before the creature arrived. It would have been silly of me anyway; it was the Elder Gruff that had put such thoughts in my head to begin with. The moment I left the Nevernever, the moment I could think clearly again, I could strip myself of the illusion. I glanced down at our hands again and found them still entwined. His fingertips were rather chilled. We stumbled on the rocky, uneven snow and nearly fell. I suppose that was what made the two of us finally realize that we simply had to slow down, else we’d only manage to injure ourselves further.

                Our fevered run changed to a jog, which slowly filtered to the same fast walk we’d used for the majority of our misadventure here. We might’ve gone three miles before this occurred. He finally decided to let go of my hand, and I demanded that we stop for a few moments to check our injuries. He, for once, followed the request, although he made quite certain that I knew of his distaste for it.

                I checked us quickly because of that, and saw quickly that there was little that could be done for the burns or the wounds where we stood now. Harry’s godmother remained our best, closest option, and so we continued on despite our pain.

                I’d never seen him so serious before, so focused. Worried, I’d seen that, and anger, and even happiness, recently, but never focus. He always seemed separated from a thing like that, far away and listing through life as if in a dream even if all his attention was focused on something. Now, though, he was a man on a mission, a man possessed. Something in me twitched at the sight; I wanted… as the Elder Gruff had said, I wished to kiss him. Only once, just once, it was all I asked for I knew that once would be all I’d ever manage. I wanted to see what it was like. I wanted to know if he always tasted like too-sweet candy and cheap coffee, wanted to do it when I wasn’t worried that he’d die in my arms, when I wasn’t giving him CPR.

                Such wants, however, were foolish. He only barely tolerated me, I knew that, and I understood it. I asked nothing more of him. It would not be fair of me. I reached out and took him by the arm without realizing that I was doing it, and he hardly missed a step. His legs were rather long, I noted, longer than mine. That was where the majority of his height came from, I supposed. Rather nice, as far as legs went. I cleared my throat as if I’d said as much aloud.

                “Harry,” I began, and he turned to look at me, his face long and angular but his eyes wide and dark. “I do not think… perhaps I’d best tell you this before we arrive at your godmother’s house.” He sighed.

                “Morgan, are you sure now is the best time for this? We’ve got a day’s travel yet to get there, and we need to do it before goat boy catches up with us.” I bit at my lip in a habit of nervousness that I’d thought I’d outgrown countless years before. Harry looked confused. His eyes were deep and black enough to drown in, but I didn’t stare long enough to do so. A Soul Gaze with him now would be quite inappropriate.

                “Yes, a mere moment, that is all it shall take. I simply would like you to know this before we continue on, so that you may have a better idea on where to place your trust.” He nodded and waved a hand, obviously telling me to go on. “Elder Gruff was not lying to you. One of us has gotten a… ‘head start’. I do… feel things for you that I should not. I do not know why; I fear that he has done something to me, planting the idea of it in my mind as he did when we met him, but whether this is a product of he or myself, it would be rude of me to not tell you.” His mouth gaped open, his face slack, and I felt the muscles in his arm tense where I held it.  I let go of him.

                “What? That’s… Morgan what the hell?”

                “I’m deeply sorry,” I told him, and he shook his head.

                “It’s not anything to apologize for. I’m just, well, you know, shocked, I guess. Not mad, so don’t, uh, worry about that, and not scared of you or something. Just shocked. When did… uh, just when Elder Gruff was talking to you when we met him? About excuses or whatever?” I nodded.

                “Yes. Harry, I realize that you do not feel the same. You do not have to be so easy with me, I understand, truly, I do. I simply wished for you to know, and to ask… one kiss, Harry. Can I? I’ll not ask for others, just… one.” He gaped at me again and I could see his consideration flashing across his face. Finally, stepped a little closer to me, and nodded.

                “I can understand that. Go ahead,” he told me, angling his head down so I could reach. Tension filled me, as if I were standing on the edge of a cliff, and I stretched up towards his face, his lips. The final press, the touch, was the last step that sent me over the edge, the shattering of the tension. Even though he’d given me permission he jumped at the touch, nearly jumped away. I groped outwards to wrap my arms around him and pull him close. He was pliant and allowed it, his lips slow against mine, and his hands settled on my shoulders. I still tasted the sugar on his lips and I slid my tongue inside and he let me and never had I known something so strange. I pulled him closer, ever closer, until I could feel the steady rhythm of his heart in his chest. Again I professed silent joy that he’d lived, that he’s always lived. Guilt bit at me. He made a noise against my mouth that made me shudder, but then he suddenly tore away from me, whipped around, and began marching away.

                I checked myself quickly and found that I’d become erect. I flinched at nothing; perhaps he’d felt it when I moved. I’d certainly made him uncomfortable, if nothing else. I chased after him in silence and he did nothing to break it even though he generally disliked such oppressive silence. I’d have spoken myself, but I am no speaker; I’d have only made things worse.

* * *

 

Harry’s POV

                I wasn’t supposed to enjoy it. I feel like I need to say that right now. I wasn’t supposed to; it wasn’t right and it wasn’t me and it was everything I ever claimed to not be and I didn’t understand it and I didn’t want to. I had liked it, though; he hadn’t been like I’d have thought he’d have been. It wasn’t demanding, he didn’t try to pull as much out of his one as he could, he just sort of stood there, took what I gave, closed his eyes and lost himself just like me. I know it was rude of me, to just turn tail and run like that, but I was scared. See? I can admit to that sometimes. I was terrified because that hadn’t felt wrong or bad or disgusting, I hadn’t thought of our past, I had only thought of the man who liked jazz and bad movies, the man who shoved me behind him in a fight, the man that I laughed with, the man that I liked. I touched my lips thoughtlessly as I heard him tromp up beside me. I dropped my hand quickly, before he could see, and we didn’t talk.

                The silence was oppressive, but I didn’t dare break it because he might find out that I wasn’t indifferent even though I was supposed to be and hell, what if he’d only done that to test me, to see, to make sure that I didn’t feel for him after what Elder Gruff had hinted at, and if that was so then I didn’t want to ruin whatever vague friendship we were forming now by letting him know. I really did like him, now that he’d allowed me to know him. If I stayed quiet for long enough, though, then it wouldn’t matter. We’d both forget and go on like before, become something like friends because that was what I wanted and even though I don’t usually get what I want, I’d decided to try.

                We altered between quick walks and jogs and runs as we moved, and in the silence we were faster, which was probably a good thing, but it was still the sort of silence a person could drown in, the sort of immeasurable silence that simply cannot be broken or changed no matter what.  In the quiet, I watched the sun climb to its peak in the sky as icy rain began to fall instead of puffy clumps of snow. Somewhere in the distance, a certain tension snapped like a taut wire and I knew that Elder Gruff had been freed. We went through one of our bouts of running even though actually it probably wouldn’t be all that helpful, to be honest. If he did catch up to us, it wouldn’t do if we were totally out of energy. Still, we ran nonetheless because sometimes even Wizards aren’t motivated entirely by logic.

                We were basically mice, just then, mice running from a gigantic cat, and we weren’t nearly as clever as Jerry, nor was Elder Gruff nearly as stupid as Tom. Of course, we were also mice with a big ally, but even she wasn’t all-powerful, by any means, and I didn’t have much hope that she could save our asses a second time. I still had hope, though, hope that all of this would end okay and we’d be fine and we’d see the real world again. Ooh, and we could go to Burger King! I’m hungry, okay? Shut up. Besides, most people say it’s the little things like that that help people get through the tough times in life. At least I kept going, I can say that for myself.

                Time passed by slowly, so slowly, and I watched my feet as the snow slowly grew less deep, until it was replaced entirely by fresh green grass, and the rain overhead stopped and was replaced by sunny skies. I worried for a few minutes that we’d somehow ended up in Summer Territory again, which would’ve spelled our end, but then I realized that the air around us was still chill, and then I saw the poppies, which were actually an even better sign to me than the temperature; Lea loved the damned things. These had to be her gardens, or at least the borders of them. We were safe.

                I then felt a blast of hot wind against my back that sent me tumbling down to the ground, to the grass. Morgan gasped and whipped around, his staff held out in front of him as I scrambled up to my feet and saw the Elder Gruff. A faint, leftover breeze was still ruffling his sleeves.

                “My,” he said, “I’d have thought that would’ve broken your back. Perhaps being on the outskirts of your Godmother’s land has offered you some measure of additional protection. Quite interesting; perhaps she’ll allow me to test it,” he said, sounding as thoughtful as a goat could ever sound. The outskirts. Damn it, the outskirts! We’d been so close, so close. If we’d just gone a little faster, had a little less distraction, we’d have made it. We’d have been home free, we’d have been safe. Now, though… now we could very easily die. I wasn’t ready to do that yet. I swallowed thickly and gathered force in my hands, heavy and teeming with my fear. It’d always been a valuable tool, I had to give it that whether I hated it or not. It was way too easy to fling that force, though, the strike the goat-man square in the chest like he had us with his flame. He flew back because of the little bit of extra punch in the spell, and Morgan was on him with earth quickly as we began a clumsy, stumbling, backwards run. We just needed to get deeper into the gardens, and then Lea could keep us safe. We just had to live that long.

                Fire came flying at me and it flumed by the area where I’d stood mere seconds after I vacated the area. The heat stung me, and probably Morgan too. I felt myself calling my Hellfire without really meaning too because sometimes that happens when I’m running on instinct and desperation. I could hardly even bring myself to hope that Morgan would be too distracted to notice it, or that maybe he’d be willing to give me a little leeway now if he did. I dived out of the way of another jet of fire and only managed a vague curiosity over why Elder Gruff was only aiming for me. I managed a backwards roll that I would’ve called super cool in pretty much any other situation, but Morgan seemed to be holding his ground pretty much exactly where we’d started for some damned reason.

                “Damn it, Morgan, we need to fall back this way! If we get deep enough in then Lea can help us!” I shrieked, and my voice cracked a little from the exertion. It was getting dark out, I noticed. That would hopefully serve as something of an advantage for us; night is in Winter’s domain. Of course, Morgan was more Summer than anything else, from what I’d seen, so I’d probably be the only one with the advantage. My force and my wind weren’t working very well, though, and I knew my fire wouldn’t. I didn’t know many ice or water spells, but they’d probably be the best option right now. Morgan finally started to move backwards towards me as I shot off one of the few ice spells I knew. It shattered against Elder Gruff’s chest and actually made him howl. I grinned, sharp and wild and afraid and angry, and did it again. It didn’t hurt him nearly as much now that he expected it. My body screamed at me to lie down and give in, but I ignored it since I’d never listened to the stupid son of a bitch before now and didn’t think it’d be the best time to start. Morgan’s spells were starting to seem desperate as he realized how ineffectual they were.

                “I’m sorry,” I heard him mumble, “for everything. For our past and for our present and likely for our future. Harry Dresden, I am sorry.” I snarled over at him for a second, my own spells hissing past my lips. I smelled burning hair and realized that some of Elder Gruff’s fire had whizzed by my head, millimeters from my ear, and singed it.

                “Yeah? Well, I’ll accept those apologies if we live,” I told him, “And give you my own.” He laughed, tired and maybe a little bitter, and I could understand that. If we died here, we’d both regret what we’d been to each other all these years, a boogeyman and a monster, a soldier and a revolutionary, a savior and a villain, a Warden and a Warlock. We’d regret that it was only now that we just started to mutually look beyond those thin veneers. We’d regret that we could’ve been friends or better. We both probably had a lot of regrets, though. We kept fighting, kept retreating backwards, and neither of us hardly let out more than a hiss or a soft yelp whenever we were burned or stung or crushed because we didn’t want to give the goat the satisfaction of something more.

                I was sure that we really were going to die there, though, that this really would be the thing that finally took us both out, when something big crashed through the poppies behind us and attacked the motherfucker. I gaped at it and it took a few seconds before I registered what it was; a giant fucking caterpillar. Like, you know all those crappy horror movies about giant bugs and stuff? This thing was on that scale, or bigger. Yeah, I say bigger. It obviously surprised Elder Gruff when it fell on him with sharp teeth-like-things and too much mass, but I honestly didn’t think it’d be the best idea to stick around and see just what exactly happened with that. Instead, I turned tail and ran like hell, Morgan right on my heels.

* * *

 

                I didn’t stop until I saw Lea’s cottage in the distance, at which point I slowed, stopped, and let out a loud, whooping laugh. When Morgan caught up to me and stopped too I threw my arms around him and laughed again.

                “Damn it, Morgan, I forgive you for literally everything, including what you haven’t even done yet! Hell’s Bells that was insane! I can’t stay mad at someone who almost died with me that many times! Stars and Stones you’re fucking amazing,” I yelled, too hopped up on adrenaline and joy and residual fear that I couldn’t really think clearly about what I was doing. What I’m trying to say is that I kissed him again, hard and with too much teeth, and he went stiff against me. I jerked away before he had a chance to really react and cleared my throat. “Sorry, I got a little excited,” I said, and he coughed.

                “Yes, well. I cannot say I’m particularly disappointed with that, but I must ask that you not… tease me,” he said, and he looked so damned sad that I could hardly associate him with the badass Evocator Donald Morgan. I was about to say something, maybe about how I wasn’t quite exactly totally teasing, but Lea stepped out of her cottage and ruined whatever I’d been about to say.

                She drifted over to me, her feet scarcely touching the ground, and took me by my hands with a vague, willowy smile. She had that distracted look in her eyes again, rather than the predatory one, the dangerous one. She was in one of her more detached moods then, I guessed.

                “My dearest Godson. I am so glad that you’ve reached me safely,” she murmured, and kissed my cheek softly. I granted her the same courtesy.

                “You too, Lea. Can we have sanctuary here until the day after tomorrow? We have to wait that long before we can leave legally.” She nodded, still seeming distant.

                “Certainly, sweet. You’ve Winter on your skin, you know. Has Elder Gruff truly given you such trouble, child? Shall I have him dealt with for you? My Queen would enjoy it so.” Morgan watched silently as I shook my head. Lea still held my hand softly.

                “No, we’re in this situation because of ourselves. There’s no need to involve Mab in it.” She cocked her head.

                “Alright, dearest. Shall I prepare a room for your guest and yourself?”

                “Yeah,” I said, and she was gone before I realized that she’d said room, singular, not rooms. Morgan and I walked slowly into the cottage. It was a small place, but comfortable and warm after the chill, and sweet smells permeated the air in a thick haze. Morgan and I settled at a small table even though we flinched at the movement, at the strange, painful ways it pulled at our injuries. We were both too uncomfortable, too nervous, to say much else until Lea came back into the room.

                “Shall I assist the two of you with your injuries now?” I nodded but Morgan looked hesitant. I reached out and touched his arm carelessly.

                “She won’t hurt us, Morgan; we’re under her hospitality. Besides, she’s a good healer, for being one of the Winter Sidhe. She can fix us up, you’ve got my word.” I never would’ve thought that he’d ever agree to anything because I said that, but he did. Lea continued to smile as her hands settled on my chest, and then her cool magic flowed over me like spring water. The burns cooled and healed, the cuts, some of which probably would have become scars, knitted together seamlessly. The aches in my muscles, my skull, faded. I was still tired, though, probably more so than before, and still hungry. She took her hands from me and settled them on Morgan, and a pale blue light covered him as she did the same for him that she had for me. We each drooped pathetically against the table by the time she was finished, but even still she settled two plates of food in front of us before she stepped away.

                “Eat, dears. It is mortal food, you’ve my word. I’ll escort you both to your room once you’ve eaten, and you may each sleep until the morning assured that I shall not allow harm to befall either of you.” We both ate, but we did it mechanically and even though the food sparked with flavor on my tongue at the time, I recall it as being a bland meal. I nearly passed out on the table afterwards, and I propped myself up mostly on Morgan as Lea led us up a small flight of stairs that didn’t seem like they’d be able to fit inside such a small cottage.

                We reached the bedroom quickly, and Morgan helped me lie down on the bed before he climbed in beside me. We were both out before we had a chance to even distantly consider the connotations of such a thing, and when Lea left the room she had a smile on her face, real and almost human.

* * *

 

                I awoke the next morning warm, with breath fanning out against my ear and my neck. Admittedly, and probably sadly, my first thought was that Mouse or Mister or both had climbed into bed with me again. It only took me a few minutes before I realized where I was and what was actually going on. Shockingly enough, I didn’t immediately fling his arm off of my waist and fly out of the bed. Instead, I stayed relaxed and caught in that half-awake stage, that weird place where the real world still retains some of the surreal, fuzzy edges of dreams. His hand was a comfortingly heavy weight on my hip and my stomach, and it was actually my stomach growling that made me finally decide that I probably needed to get up. I attempted to pick up his arm and move, but he only tightened it around me. I sighed; I hadn’t wanted to wake him up, but apparently I’d have to, else I’d remain a giant skinny teddy bear for the rest of the morning. I reached the arm I could actually still mostly move over towards the general region of his shoulder and shook him hard. He groaned, low and lazy and still obviously tired.

                “Let lose, Morgan. I’m hungry. You can go back to sleep if you want, but let me up.”

                “Rather not,” he grumbled, “Comfortable.” That shocked a snort out of me. Morgan being petulant? That was… weird, to say the least. Psychotic, to be honest.

                “Cuddle a pillow, asshole.”

                “Like you better. Won’t get to do this ever again. Want to enjoy it.” Oh, yeah. Apparently he really had been telling the truth before. It hadn’t been a test, or a bad joke, or anything. He’d been serious. I could understand how he was feeling, and suddenly I just wasn’t so hungry anymore. I relaxed and settled my hand on top of his over my stomach. I felt his chest expand as he breathed, and his heartbeat pounded a steady rhythm into my spine. It was silent but for our breath, and everything was still and peaceful. It felt like none of the last few days had happened. If felt like nothing had ever happened in a million years. I’ve seen and felt some strange illusions in my life, you know, but that certainly had to have been one of the strangest. Another hour, at least, probably passed before Morgan actually did take his hand off of me and sit up. I followed suit, my muscles protesting at use after the rest I’d granted them. I offered him a smile.

                “Morning,” I told him, and he nodded. I sighed because damn it, this was getting frustrating. No one had ever pined after me before, and I didn’t know how to deal with it, but I was pretty sure that staring at it and hoping it went away, like both of us pretty much had been doing, wouldn’t work. “Look, I think we need to talk about… this, okay? Do you want to come back up here after breakfast and do that? We’ve got the whole day.”  I could see the nerves nagging at him through his face, the worry, the self-deprecation, the everything. Yeah, we definitely needed a chat because this wasn’t the stone faced man I knew, the unbreakable wall, the unstoppable force. We didn’t say anything after that, though; instead we just went downstairs to eat breakfast and I decided that we both had the emotional maturity of ten year olds.

* * *

 

                We went back up to the room afterwards, Lea watching us with glinting eyes and a raised eyebrow as if she knew something important, something neither of us were privy to. We sat on the edge of the bed, side by side and looking anywhere but each other, and surprisingly enough it was he who broke the silence, although I couldn’t say his comment was exactly productive.

                “If I’ve made you uncomfortable, I promise that you’ve no need to be. I shan’t act on anything unless you give your permission. We need not ever mention any of this again, if you’d prefer. I promise you that I’d be perfectly happy with whatever friendship we manage to form.” I heaved a sigh and shook my head.

                “Not talking about it isn’t going to help, dumbass. I know that well enough by now; I live among vanillas, remember? Apparently stuff like this happens to them constantly. Anyway, I don’t know why you feel like that about me, of all people, but I’m just…”

                “Uninterested, yes. I do understand, I’ve already said.”

                “Not that,” I said after a few seconds of silence. He looked surprised and just a little distrustful, as if he thought I was playing him for a fool. I tried for a smile of reassurance, but I’m not sure how well I did at it. All my other occasions for attempting a smile like that have contained a lot more risk for people exploding, so I’ve never exactly practiced when not under duress. Anyway. “I… look, I enjoyed that kiss, I did. That’s why I pulled away. I wasn’t supposed to and it scared me. Like, a lot. I’ve only dated women before, and not many of those; I’m not exactly a Casanova, if you couldn’t tell.  And I like you. I really don’t understand that one, but ever since we started travelling together, I’ve seen new sides of you. What I think is the real you. It’s a man I wouldn’t mind spending more time with. It still scares me though. It scares me that I didn’t mind waking up with you holding me. It scares me that I wouldn’t mind kissing you again. It scares me that I might actually want something else with you.” He looked torn, as if he had no idea what to do, as if this had been the last thing he’d ever expected. And then he had me in his arms, tight but not so much so that I couldn’t breathe or something, obviously there but also obviously able to be moved, able to let me go.

                “You’ve no idea the happiness I feel,” he murmured, “Please, Harry, don’t be afraid. Please try.” I felt as if I’d swallowed my tongue, as if every word I knew was stuck just at the top of my throat. Morgan’s face was as open as I’d ever seen it, and behind it I saw his worries and his nerves and I’d never thought a man like Morgan would ever be insecure about anything, but that’s how he appeared now. I needed to know for certain that it was all real, though. I needed to know that I could trust this. I’d been burned by my trust before. I didn’t want it to happen again.

                “Soul Gaze,” I managed, “I want a Soul Gaze.” He agreed to that with speed that shocked me, and we settled ourselves face to face, and for the first time I looked deeply into Morgan’s eyes. They were a deep, dark brown, yet clear despite it all. I felt myself leaning forward a little as I was tugged into his soul.

                His soul was done in shades of red and blue, nothing else, which while a little strange was sort of expected. There were faces scattered around, most of which I didn’t recognize, although I did see Luccio there, her face, her old face, looking ethereal in a pale shade of blue. His sword was there too, but it was bright bloody red where it lay, and the color leaked like water onto the nondescript landscape around it. I walked slowly and took in the sights, and then I saw myself. Not like a mirror or anything, just me sitting around. I was a little bit younger there than I was now, though, maybe a year or two, and my face and my clothes couldn’t seem to decide whether or not they were supposed to be red or blue. They flashed back and forth, sometimes sharing the space of my body and sometimes fighting for it. Blazing red fire, unnatural for its lack of orange or yellow, licked at my whole self, as if wanting to consume me but unable to manage. The particular nondescript environment around me was a little less nondescript, since I recognized the building behind me as the one Sells had used. The me in his soul shut his eyes and smiled as the fire went out, but the red and blue continued to fight for dominion. I decided that it made me look like police lights were flashing on me. I guess one of the colors would’ve won eventually, but I was expelled from his soul before I could see. We each panted for breath; I don’t think Soul Gazes will ever be anything other than tiring, honestly. I mean, seriously, it’s sort of ridiculous how just sitting in the same place and staring hard can take so much out of you.

                Still, I was pretty sure that I’d learned what I needed to know. I was pretty sure that he’d been honest with me. He reached out to run a hand down my arm and I smiled as best I could without oxygen coming properly into my lungs. I wasn’t able to hold it for long, though.

                “Okay. I believe that you haven’t lied to me, Morgan, at least in regard to what you’re feeling. I want to… can we try? I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but I want to try.” He kissed me hard and I was pretty sure I’d gotten my answer. And since I’m secretly really girly, I leaned against him and propped my head on his shoulder as soon as our lips were separated. I don’t know for how long we lay there, but it was a while, and even when we weren’t, the rest of the day was uneventful. Lea kept us fed and continued with the knowing looks that were starting to piss me off a little, and even though it was a pretty comfortable set up, we were out of dodge the moment Lea told us it was midnight. Also, apparently Lea’s gardens hook directly to my apartment. I feel like I should probably look into that soon, by the way. Anyway, all of that resulted in the first time ever that Morgan and I had been in my apartment together.

* * *

 

                I felt like a teenager again, the air uncomfortable and tight around us as if it didn’t want us in it. I didn’t do well with awkward, though, especially not with people I cared about, so I cleared my throat and turned to face him. He blinked at me.

               “So, you want coffee?” I asked, and for some reason he found that funny. After a few seconds, I did too. We laughed noisily until we were leaning heavily against each other in the middle of my living room floor, we laughed until we had to sit down on that floor, and as we continued our leaning and our laughing a whole new tension appeared in the air. I had literally no idea what to do with it, though; I usually didn’t. Morgan seemed just as lost as me, though, so maybe that was another Wizard thing. Still, there comes a point when enough tension arises that you just sort of know what to do, and if there’s one thing people generally understand, at least on a base level, it’s what to do with another body. I twisted around and pressed my palms into his chest, so he’d fall back against my rugs, at which point I straddled his hips like I had in the cave. That apparently surprised him, I assume because at this point he thought sex was a thing that happened to other people. I could understand that, though, because in a way I’d been thinking that for a while too.

               I was pretty sure, however, that this was the first time I’d ever seriously initiated something like this; normally it was a joint effort, or someone just beat me over the head enough times that I finally realized that oh, they wanted me, wasn’t that just so strange, maybe I should do something about it. That’s not important at the moment, though, because you know, I was busy. I ran my hands down Morgan’s chest, and gained a new appreciation for the soft fabric of the Warden’s cloak. I’m pretty sure Morgan did too, though, considering he made this sort of groaning noise and took me by my hips.

              “Harry,” he ground out, as if I was supposed to know everything he wanted by that one single utterance of my name. Still, it made me unsure of whether to sigh or laugh, so I just did both. He moved his hands in a way that, had they been on my shoulders, would have shook me, but as it stood it just caused me to be forced to wiggle around in odd ways.

              “Yeah, you’re going to have to be a little more eloquent than that. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.” I let out a noise that made me think I’d just destroyed his entire universe, and then he managed real words.

              “More than this,” he said, “If you’re to do anything, more than this.” I blinked. Yeah, that was a whole lot of help, the asshole. I squirmed around until I managed to grab the bottom of his robe, and with a series of very interesting maneuvers that we should probably document later for the revised edition of the Kama Sutra, I was able to remove it from him, and the clothes he had on underneath, at which point I touched his actual chest instead of layers of fabric. It felt like stone under leather, and periodically I’m pretty sure I pressed or touched too hard because I kept expecting to find something soft, but he didn’t fling me off of him or anything, so I guess I wasn’t too bad. I was getting really warm, though, so I stripped my clothes and Morgan watched like I was the most fascinating creature on the planet, like he’d never seen anything better. It was sort of an ego boost, to be honest. His hands didn’t do much to cool my now bare hips, but whatever; I couldn’t really expect a nice cool breeze at the moment.

              “Well? Here’s more. I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing, though. Help me out here, Donald.” I’m pretty much positive that I sounded way more confident than I actually felt just then, but then again, anyone would’ve sounded more confident than I felt just then. I was terrified, testing new waters I’d never imagined, and those new waters kept rushing over my head before I got a chance to swim to the surface. I bounced a little where I sat because I was nervous and I like moving when I’m nervous. Morgan’s eyes blew wide and his fingers clenched tight enough to bruise. I hissed.

              “Touch me,” he said through clenched teeth, which now that I think of it, is pretty impressive.  Was pretty sure I’d only seen Murphy actually manage that before then. He had at least given me some direction now, though, something to do, so I slid down off of my perch and took his dick in my hands. I cocked my head at the feel of it, because it was different but familiar, a weird angle and a weird sensation but not bad, by any means. I twisted it in my grasp and his hips jerked up. I giggled like I’d never seen anything more interesting, and maybe I hadn’t, honestly. It had been a while, after all.

              Anyway, I slid my fingers underneath the head and twisted there, let my other hand go play with his balls like I liked, and he jerked and wiggled on the floor as if he’d changed his mind and wanted something else now. Oh well; I was having fun exploring now. This was sort of like a new mystery, a new puzzle, for me to figure out, and I’d damn well work at it until I was bored. I wriggled forward and licked just above my hand, and he surged upright like a tidal wave to clench his fists into my hair. I glared up at him, a little, but he didn’t seem to care all that much. I did it again in recompense and he let out this strangled, choked, suffocating noise. I slid my hand up and down, jerked him a few times, but I got bored with that pretty quickly. I was being faced with something I’d never done before, now, and I was curious, and since I figured I probably wouldn’t ever get such a great opportunity handed to me again, I leaned forward and took him in my mouth. That was the first time I ever heard him literally cry out. I sucked hard enough to hollow my cheeks and was rewarded with the second as his body hunched over mine. I moved my hands to hold his thighs apart and he let keep them there even though he could’ve removed them easily.

              I pulled back some because the whole ‘take it all’ thing was terrible on my jaw, and I was pretty sure I’d end up losing my voice or something equally ridiculous and embarrassing if I kept at that too much. Instead, I just laved attention on the head since he seemed to like that best anyhow. I felt one of his hands untangle from my hair and run down the back of my neck and my spine, although I couldn’t reach much farther than that. I kept up my work because the noises he made were interesting, and because I’d always liked knowing that when I was like this for someone, I was the one giving them pleasure, the only one, the current center of their universe, and for those few moments I let myself be selfish and enjoy that; I don’t get to be the center very often. I tongued at the slit and apparently that was his breaking point because the hand still in my hair jerked me off of him hard and fast and quickly. When I looked up at him his eyes were wide and surprisingly hungry.

             “Did you decide you want something else, now?” I asked, still more self-assured than I actually felt.

             “I’d like to… be inside you, if that would be acceptable.” The sheer formality of the question made me burst into wild giggles. He looked mildly offended, as if he thought it was him in general that I was laughing at, and I shook my head in a very sad attempt at reconciliation.

             “Not you, not really,” I managed through the giggles, “just, the way you said it! You don’t have to be so formal about it, Donald! We’re rolling around like teenagers in the middle of my living room floor, Hell’s Bells. Which, that’s probably for the best since my bed’s too small, but still. It’s the principle. Now, come here and do what you want. I’m good with it. Or, as good as I’ll ever be. I’ll probably have a panic about it in the morning, but I don’t feel like it now, so come the hell on.” That, and me flopping over onto my back, were apparently good enough invitations because he scrabbled right on over to me with a happy smile on his face where I’d once been used to a scowl. I really did like this way better than our past. I still wished I’d known this him sooner, though. It would’ve made my life a lot better, easier, more beautiful and wonderful and amazing, up to now, beyond now. He crouched over me and pressed a kiss to my lips and I smiled against his mouth as I returned it, easily just as relaxed as I’d been after Lea’s healing, maybe more so since it was real instead of fay illusion.

                His hand made its way down to my ass and one thick finger moved inside of me. He kept kissing me, probably as a distraction, as the appendage worked its way inside and wiggled around, looking for something as it stretched and prodded. I knew what he’d been looking for when he found it, though, because it made me jerk underneath him and let out something I’d probably describe as a keen. He swallowed it down as and snuck another finger in while my legs were sprawled out, loose and jelly-like, from that sensation. These two he scissored out wide, and my legs sprawled out more. Also, one of them got stuck under the couch. Yes, that was indeed exactly as embarrassing as you think it is. My legs are way too long and my apartment is way too small. He separated our mouths and without him to catch the noises, the room suddenly got a lot louder.

                I was suddenly very grateful that Mouse and Mister had apparently decided to occupy my bedroom for the rest of eternity. Morgan’s other hand ran up and down my side, almost ticklish but inherently nice, and then it moved to the leg not stuck under the couch to fling it over his shoulder. I felt suddenly very exposed and very embarrassed and another finger went in so I guessed I couldn’t look that bad and it probably wasn’t my place to care just then anyhow.

                Admittedly, my groaning was wanton and pathetic and sounded almost nothing like me, but Morgan seemed to like it anyway because his face was strained when he apparently decided that he’d stretched me quite enough. A blunt pressure replaced his fingers when he removed them, and I knew what was coming so I relaxed as entirely as I could to let him ease his way in. It was slow with such little slick to help, but I guessed slow was okay; our whole relationship had been defined by slow, until now. It was only fair we kept up the trend after we’d jumped into bed (floor?) so quickly. Finally, though, all of him was inside me. I quivered around me, my body so hot I was certain I’d melt from the inside out, and he clutched at my hip with one hand and wrapped his fingers around my dick with the other.

                With the help of his hand on my hip and the leverage of my leg over his shoulder I moved along with him. We found the right angle, the right rhythm, suddenly, the pleasure suddenly overtaking the both of us and twin moans falling from our throats. His face went tight and his eyes went closed, his movements stuttering and his muscles quivering. My foot ached a little where it was stuck, but I ignored it in favor of his hand jerking at me feverishly and his dick hitting that one place over and over and when I came it was sudden and surprised even me.

                I screamed out his name, loud enough that my voice cracked, and suddenly he tensed too, came hard inside me and I felt even more like I was melting than before. He went limp on top of me and slipped out, but about five minutes passed before he bothered to roll off of me. As stupid as it sounds, we cuddled there on the floor until morning, my foot stuck under the couch and both of us chilly, but I slept better than I had in a while. He kissed my cheek before we slept and the moment we awoke. It was sweet and domestic and I’d never had anything like that before. It was probably as perfect as my life would ever get.

* * *

 

                It was admittedly pretty strange after that. Morgan kept insisting on coming with me for like, every case I worked, even when all I planned on doing was dispelling a minor possession or making a little charm. It was sort of annoying and sort of sweet; I couldn’t always decide which. I could admit that it helped sometimes, though, on the bigger cases, and Murphy got used to him shockingly quickly. Also, I’m pretty sure that they had tons of sparring matches now. Murphy usually one, in case anyone’s wondering.

                Still, it was a good arrangement. We cared about each other even though we fought a lot, but that was sort of who we were. We fought, then we made up and we learned something, and then we fought again and made up again and kept going. We’d do that probably until there was nothing left to fight about, and then we’d just go back and rehash the old fights we’d forgotten about. It was in our nature and it made me feel better to call him a bastard sometimes and it made him feel better to call me a suicidal stupid foolish disobedient moron sometimes. He’s still more eloquent than me, by the way.

                Our life was good, though, generally speaking. We were happy despite ourselves, more so because he’d long thought he’d gotten too old for anything like this and me because I’d long thought I would never find someone willing to put up with me all the time long term. I found myself amazed and joyous flattered that I’d been wrong about that, though, that I’d found the real Morgan despite the strange circumstances during which I’d done it. Hell, even Mister was starting to tolerate him, and Mouse had very obviously fallen just as in love with him as me. He’d become a fixture. I hoped he stayed that way. Happy was a strange, almost knew thing for me, but I’d grown to love being that way, and Morgan helped me do that. I loved the bastard, and he seemed to love me too. We’d have to send Elder Gruff and Titania a Christmas card next year, as a thank you. Maybe we’d even send a photo of the happy family; I always had wanted an excuse to put Mouse in a Santa hat. 


End file.
